Microsoft, Skype, start-up Toggl, and the Tech Sisters NGO held a DigiGirlz event for 14-18 year old girls, which attracted 30+ participants
from schools across Tallinn for a three-hour workshop on UX design, programming and product management. In support of the event, the team
created the Facebook page DigiGirls Estonia to communicate all Girls in ICT
activities. Key coverage included a Radio 2 broadcast about the event: “ Women in the World of Technology”.
Since the event, the team has organized another Girls in ICT event, the HTMS & CSS workshop, on May
14 as part of Estonian ICT week. Two female journalists participated. Another DigiGirlz event planned for 14-18 year old girls took place on
May 23rd in Tartu.
Microsoft hosted two events in collaboration with partner IT companies and non-profits to highlight opportunities for girls and women in ICT.
Over 50 girls and women interested in or already working in the ICT sector attending the first event on May 7. Keynotes were delivered by Kati
Tiainen, Education Lead at Microsoft, and Jutta Haaramo, CEO & Founder of online enterprise Stylewhile. The event was organized in
cooperation with The Federation of Finnish Technology Industries, professional women’s network called Aalto Women in Business and ICT companies
Avanade and Relex.
Two major women’s lifestyle magazines, Trendi and MeNaiset attended the event and interviewed selected
participants. A third women’s magazine, Olivia, interviewed Microsoft representatives and a few other event participants’ week
after. In addition, an op-ed was published in Turun Sanomat, one of the major local newspapers
the following day.
The second event was held for 30 college girls aged between 13 and 16 and their teachers. The event was organized in cooperation with JA
Finland. Girls attended three workshops featuring KODU, Xbox, and innovation & entrepreneurship. According to one of the teachers, the
visit at Microsoft was “an eye-opening experience” for both the students and the teachers.
Germany
Microsoft Germany held events across two days and three cities. On April 22nd, eight girls participated in a ‘Code your Life’
initiative before presenting their coding results to Chancellor Angela Merkel as she toured the official Girls’ Day exhibition at the
Chancellery in Berlin.
On 23rd April Microsoft offices in Berlin, Cologne and Munich all hosted International Girls in ICT Day initiatives. All three
cities offered speed dating style sessions where girls had the opportunity to meet with female role models involved in game design, developing
and blogging.
Berlin also hosted a workshop for 60 girls and Parliamentarian State Secretary Thomas Rachel (Federal Ministry of Education and Research). The
girls demonstrated their coding skills live on stage.
A press release centred on Girls day was issued, and the
team amplified the events through a series of posts for a number of local channels, including @MSFT_Politik and @MicrosoftPresse. The tweets
saw over 21 RTs and over 28 favourites.
Hungary
On 23rd April, Microsoft Hungary, along with the Association of Hungarian Women in Science organized an event where 40 girls took
part in ICT activities. The event aimed to influence the vocational choices of girls in a positive way. The goal of these activities was to
provide girls with information about technology and business roles, thought-provoking exercises and interesting Microsoft product
demonstrations.
So far the event has generated a total of 20 pieces of coverage from a number of national publications such asedupress.hu and mmonline.hu.
Italy
Microsoft Italy hosted a press conference for the launch of Pink Cloud that took place at Palazzo Reale in Milan on Thursday
April 23. More than 200 people attended the event including journalists, bloggers, partners, institutions, influencers,
sponsors, and two classes from a Milanese high school. Thanks to the partnership with UN Women, UNRIC, UNESCO and ITU itself,
the event had a huge impact on social media, including:
-
The hashtag #nuvolarosa generated 12,909,693 timeline deliveries with 1470 tweets and more than 299 contributors
-
The hashtag #nuvolarosa was among the national trending topics during the whole press conference (from 11.30 a.m.)
Italian press coverage was very positive: +40 top articles have been generated so far including articles inWired and Prima Online.
Norway
Microsoft Norway organised successful a coding event called ‘The North Star’. This was in partnership with ODA-Nettverk (NGO womens’ ICT
network in Norway) and the national Hour of Code NGO partner – “Lær kidsa koding” (Teach the Kids Coding). 40 women and 50 girls aged 10+
participated. The team had a great result with national broadcaster TV NRK Supernytt
covering the event. The event gained strong traction on Facebook and Twitter with both partners promoting the event. “Lær kidsa koding” also
promoted this event via a blog post
.
Poland
Microsoft Poland partnered with the Girls Code Fun foundation to invest in, encourage, and empower
more girls in Poland to gain an interest in technology and to pursue an education in computer science. In April and May, the team conducted a
series of meetings with the school girls to ignite a lifelong interest in technology, develop their self-confidence through understanding one
of the greatest skills of our time, and be inspired by the examples of successful SMSG Women Polish Chapter members’ career paths. As part of
Microsoft’s ‘Girls in New Technologies – We can do it!’ contest, Microsoft Poland are offering two paid internships.
